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SB 211 
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RAISE POTATOES AND HELP TO 
WIN THE WAR 



POTATO CULTURE 

HOW, WHEN, WHERE AND WHAT TO PLANT. 

CULTIVATING, SPRAYING, HARVESTING, 

STORING AND MARKETING THE CROP 



An Abridged Edition of Bulletin No. 190 

Department of Agriculture 

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 



^m%, 



Edited by E. A. ROGERS, Brunswick, Maine 



ISSUED AND DISTRIBUTED BY 

The Pennsylvania Railroad Company 

FREIGHT DEPARTMENT 



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RAISE POTATOES AND 
HELP TO WIN THE WAR 

One of the most important military duties that will 
rest upon the people of the United States, in the con- 
duct of the War, will be to produce a surplus of food. 
We must have enough not only to meet our own proper 
needs at home, but also to aid in feeding the armies and 
the civil populations of the countries of Europe with 
whom we have cast our lot. 

President Wilson, in his recent appeal, emphasized 
this fact by declaring that upon the tillers of the soil "in 
large measure rests the fate of the War and the fate of 
the Nations." 

This booklet is issued by the Pennsylvania Railroad 
Company to assist and encourage the people whom its 
lines serve in extending, as greatly as possible, the 
production of one of the most important of the World's 
great food crops— POTATOES. 

Potatoes are eaten universally. They are healthful, 
sustaining and satisfying, and they have the very great 
advantage that, if proper methods of cultivation are 
followed, enormous yields are obtainable from a given 
area of ground. From 300 to 500 bushels can be raised 
from a single acre by care and skill. 

Potatoes are, therefore, particularly adapted to 
meeting the emergency created by the scarcity of food 
resultant upon the war. 

All Americans, who can, should raise potatoes this 
Summer. Every potato produced before next Fall 
will be more effective, in the cause of the United States 
and the Allies, than a bullet. 



Copies of this booklet may be obtained free from any 
Station Agent or Division Freight Agent of the Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad Company, op from the Freight Traffic 
Department, Broad Street Station, Philadelphia. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Announcement 1 

Foreword 3 

General Conditions 5 

Rotation 5 

Selection of Suitable Soil 6 

Underdrainage 7 

Preparation of Soil 8 

Humus _ .. 9 

Causes of the Running Out of the Potato 13 

Potatoes for Seed 16 

Varieties 21 

Originating New Varieties 21 

Whole Potatoes for Seed 24 

Sprouting or Budding Seed Potatoes 26 

Selecting and Cutting Seed 27 

Planting Early Potatoes in a Small Way.. 30 

Planting Early Potatoes in a Large Way 35 

Planting the Late or Main Crop 39 

Stable Manure 4 1 

Commercial Fertilizer 41 

Cultivating the Crop 45 

Insecticides 49 

Paris Green 49 

Arsenate of Lead '. 52 

Bug Death 53 

Bordeaux Mixture 54 

Sprayers 57 

Spraying 60 

Insects 64 

The Flea Beetle 64 

The Colorado Beetle 66 

Scab _ 67 

Late Blight or Rot _ 70 

Harvesting and Storing _ 74 

Marketing the Crop 77 



FOREWORD 

This booklet has been prepared and edited especially 
for distribution by the Pennsylvania Railroad. As it 
is a condensation of the Special Bulletin upon potato 
culture issued by the Department of Agriculture of the 
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it is authoritative. 
Its pages set forth the actual results obtained by scien- 
tists and practical growers in successfully producing 
this valuable crop, and in obtaining large and increasing 
yields per acre. 

The directions herein given, if intelligently and 
faithfully followed, will not only act as a guide to the 
professional farmer in taking up potato growing, or in 
improving his methods and enlarging his crop, but 
will also enable persons engaged in other pursuits to 
utilize any tract of reasonably fertile land in a manner 
that will help the Nation and the cause to which we are 
committed. 

While the booklet deals particularly with potato 
culture in Pennsylvania, it is equally applicable to the 
other States traversed by the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
in all of which similar varieties of climate and soil 
are found. 



GENERAL CONDITIONS.— Pennsylvania, with its diver- 
sified soils, has many sections peculiarly adapted to 
potato growing. The culture of this important crop 
has not received the attention deserved, for there are 
few crops grown that so quickly respond to intelligent 
culture as this. The crop value per acre ranks high- 
est where it is studied and modern methods and ma- 
chinery used. This the statistics of the U. S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture prove, Pennsylvania's standing 
among potato states being third in acreage and seventh 
in yield per acre, while Maine's is seventh in acreage 
and first in yield per acre. 

That this is not wholly the result of better climatic 
and soil conditions in Maine is supported by evidence 
of crops in Pennsylvania yielding 300 to over 500 
bushels per acre. If individuals can obtain such 
yields by proper methods, there is apparently no reason 
why the same effort, if put forth by other growers, 
should not increase the yield per acre in Pennsylvania 
to that of Maine. 

ROTATION. — The grower must have a fixed system 
of crop rotation to obtain the best results, and this 
must be varied in different localities. 

The Maine grower has a three or four year rotation: 

First. Potatoes on broken sod. 

Second. Grain, usually oats or spring wheat, sown 
as early as the ground is in condition to properly work, 
grass and clover being sown with either. 
. Third and' fourth years hay, unless a three year 
rotation is practiced, when hay will only be cut the 
third year, plowing under the second crop of clover 
for potatoes. 



6 

This is varied by planting corn the second year, 
seeding to grass and clover at the last working of the 
corn. 

As fine a stand of grass and clover is usually obtained 
by seeding in this manner as is obtainable by seeding 
with any system of small grains. There is a disadvan- 
tage, in that the first year's hay contains more or less 
corn stubble. This is unobjectionable if the hay be 
fed on the farm and not intended for market. 

Following potatoes with corn permits the use of 
manure dressing on land in the potato rotation with 
little injury to the potato crop, as the manure will be 
so far consumed by the corn and hay crops before 
potatoes again come in, that the risk of rot or scab is 
slight. The manure will help both corn and the newly 
seeded grass and clover. If oats are sown, it won't 
do to apply manure, as its application results in lodged 
grain, which kills the clover, while lodged grain fails 
to fill. 

This rotation should do as well in sections of Penn- 
sylvania as in Maine, but in localities where corn is 
planted on sod, followed the second year with potatoes, 
crimson clover or some other humus supplying crop 
must be sown in the com, if large crops of potatoes 
are expected. No system of rotation placing potatoes 
second will yield maximum crops. 

SELECTION OF SUITABLE SOIL— The soil must be 
well drained. No care in selecting seed and cultiva- 
tion or surface drainage after planting will otherwise 
avail and a paying crop cannot be produced in soil 
filled with stagnant water. Deep sandy or gravelly 
loams are best. Not only will the potato, as a rule, 
grow better in this soil, but it is more easily worked. 



The successful grower knows that it is then a question 
of doing work at the proper time, and that the soil 
referred to, can be worked sooner after our short 
summer rains, and little working delay need occur 
with such soil. 

Clay loam, if not too heavy, will produce as much per 
acre as lighter soils and of just as good quality, pro- 
vided the soil is well drained. The disadvantage of the 
heavier soils is in working them in wet weather, which 
may delay planting in spring and prevent cultivation 
i to such an extent that weeds may get a start not to 
be overcome with any system of cultivation, except 
hand work, too costly and slow for our high priced 
labor. 

Large yields of 500 to 600 bushels per acre and of 
finest quality have been grown on clay loam. Tillers 
of such need not despair of competing with those hav- 
ing an easily worked loam. 

UNDERDRAINAGE.— The value of underdrainage can- 
not be overestimated. The cost of a system of tile 
underdrain has been more than repaid by increase in 
the first year's crop. A properly laid system will 
last a lifetime, and because of its beneficial effects on 
all crops of subsequent years becomes a profitable in- 
vestment. This applies especially to places which 
are springy or with depressions in them or where water 
stands after rain. Such places will not produce a 
paying crop, regardless of any care given, until such 
surplus water is removed by underdrains. 

The increase derived from this, represents only part 
of the value to the grower, since where water collects 
and stands after rain, the vigor of the crop is reduced 
or the plant killed outright, while blight often starts 



8 

there, spreads to higher parts of the field and ruin 
results, whereas but for this source of infection it would 
have escaped. Hence, an undrained sag in a potato 
field is a menace to the whole, for it is the breeding 
place for blight or rot, and even in a dry season when 
potatoes can grow in such a place they are seldom fit 
for market, usually being rough, illshapen and of 
poor quality. 

PREPARATION OF SOIL— To the average grower, the 
preparation is of more importance than the kind of 
soil, provided it be well drained. We have little work- 
able land which cannot, under intelligent methods, 
produce a profitable crop. Land too wet needs drain- 
age, land naturally too dry can, by supplying it with 
plenty of humus or vegetable matter, be made to hold 
moisture and produce a paying crop. With this, more 
than with any other crop, success depends on the man 
rather than on the soil itself. 

Potatoes require much moisture; not stagnant water, 
which excludes air, but moisture in a form that permits 
air to circulate freely through the few inches of top 
soil, and the more vegetable matter or humus in the 
soil, the more moisture it can retain and still permit 
free air circulation. No crop so rapidly consumes 
vegetable matter or humus as this, and the more the 
soil contains the greater the yield. 

The lack of humus in our soils is the greatest draw- 
back to the grower today. Planting corn on sod, 
followed next year with potatoes, deprives the potato 
of the very vegetable matter it needs, while the growers' 
great problem is, how to supply this vegetable matter 
at minimum cost. In sections where crimson clover 
can be sown at the last working of corn, with a fair 



prospect of good growth, it will prove of benefit, but 
in sections where corn is not much grown, the same 
system of culture and rotation as practiced in Maine 
can be followed with slight variations. 

On old meadows, covered with heavy sod, will be 
found vegetable matter enough to produce a large 
crop, when a liberal application of commercial fertili- 
zer is added. Such a field should be plowed in the 
fall, since by so doing the sod decomposes enough for 
capillary tubers to form and allow the subsoil moisture 
to come near enough the surface to be available for 
the potato roots. This does not occur when spring 
plowed, if followed by a dry summer. Land should 
not, however, be left without a cover crop during 
winter, as this results in waste of fertility. Rye, or a 
similar crop, should be fall sown, especially in sections 
where little snow prevails. The ideal method is, to 
harrow plowed sod both ways of the field in early 
August, using a weighted cutaway, followed with a 
spring tooth harrow. This will cut and pulverize the 
sod. Do this during a period of say four to six weeks, 
harrowing once a week. This rids the soil of undesira- 
ble vegetation and weeds. When sod has been thus 
reduced with harrow, plow and sow with some cover 
crop. Winter vetch and rye produce much vegetable 
matter to plow under in the spring, and will supply 
enough nitrogen to partly pay for the work. While 
the most costly method, it is the most profitable. 
Working the sod, as suggested, produces an ideal seed 
bed for the cover crop, and spring turning fills the soil 
with vegetable matter and puts it in the best condition 
to retain moisture and produce a crop. 

HUMUS. — Control of moisture in land planted in 
potatoes is important and is not secured by drainage 



10 

alone, but is dependent upon the humus-content in the 
soil. Twenty-two pounds of water is required to satu- 
rate 100 pounds of clean dry sand ; 56 pounds of water 
to saturate 100 pounds of perfectly dry, ordinary clay 
loam, while it requires 196 pounds of water to saturate 
100 pounds of perfectly dry leaf mold, or nearly nine 
times as much as an equal weight of sand and three 
and one-half times as much more than is required to 
saturate ordinary clay loam. A soil deficient in humus 
will not produce a paying crop in dry seasons, regard- i 
less of the amount of cultivation or commercial fertili- i 
zer expended upon it, while a soil filled with humus can, i 
by cultivation, be made to do so in a season devoid of 
rain. A clay loam soil filled with humus can be worked 
quicker after a heavy rain than like soil deficient in it, . 
and the capacity of the humus filled soil to hold mois- i 
ture is so much greater, that with intelligent, shallow i 
cultivation a good crop is assured. 

Control of moisture is not the only advantage of a i 
soil filled with humus. The rock formed soils of the * 
eastern United States are filled with mineral plant 
food. Leading scientists claim that the first eight 
inches of our heaviest loams contain enough potash I 
for maximum crops for from 200 to 400 years and 
phosphoric acid enough for from 150 to 300 years, i 
but this mineral plant food is locked up in insoluble 
form; a wise provision which prevents man from 
reducing the face of nature to a barren waste. Fill 
a soil with humus, which is decaying organic matter, 
and the acids formed in this process will help to break 
down and set free some of this insoluble plant food. 
The second eight inches of soil contain as much or 
more mineral plant food as the first. 



11 

The productiveness of our soils depends more 
largely upon their humus-content than upon any other 
one thing, and hence the first object of the potato 
grower should be to fill his soil with this decaying 
vegetable matter. To replenish the organic content 
of soil, bear in mind plants which will supply nitrogen, 
this being the most costly element of plant food to 
buy, and both humus and nitrogen can be supplied 
to soil by the legumes. Of these, alfalfa stands first, 
but because of the short rotation followed by potato 
growers, it is little used. Those having land enough 
to adopt a five year rotation for potatoes and facilities 
for keeping live stock to consume the alfalfa will 
obtain better returns. Alfalfa makes a large root 
growth, penetrating deeply even hard clay subsoil, 
drawing fertility from below, increasing the water 
holding capacity of the soil and at the same time 
gathering and storing nitrogen. None of the clovers 
have the elevating capacity of alfalfa, and the grower 
having a three-year-old alfalfa soil to plow under can 
grow a good crop with the smallest amount of commer- 
cial fertilizer. Alfalfa can be grown on any well 
drained soil, and, thriving best when sown in early 
August, can follow early potatoes. Properly seeded 
in properly prepared soil, no trouble will be experienced 
in obtaining a stand of alfalfa which will last three 
years, produce a large amount of hay and put the soil 
in best condition for potatoes. 

Next to alfalfa, a heavy clover sod to plow under 
not only furnishes a large amount of vegetable matter, 
but many dollars' worth of nitrogen food. Authorities 
claim, that the second crop of clover leaves in an acre 
from 150 to 200 pounds of nitrogen, which, at present 



12 

prices, amounts to from $27.00 to $40.00 in nitrogen, 
and the mechanical effect of plowing under this second 
crop of clover sod, while not as great as with alfalfa, i 
will be worth as much as the nitrogen to the potato 
grower. 

In many sections, clover does not grow as well as 
it once did, and because of this, many farmers have 
stopped it in their rotation, resulting in great loss 
in the productivity of their farms. Experience teaches 
that the two main causes for failure of clover to grow are: i 

First. — The lack of lime; clover needs much lime, i 
and unless this is present in the soil the bacteria i 
existing on clover roots, and which gathers nitrogen i 
from the air for plant use, cannot live or do not develop |j 
to the extent of being of much use to the clover crop, i 

Second. — If, after using lime, clover fails to grow, we 
may conclude that phosphoric acid is the one thing j; 
lacking to obtain the bountiful crops of the past. 

The potato grower cannot succeed without alfalfa or 
clover. If the field to be planted is devoid of either of i 
these, use winter vetch and rye as a substitute. They j 
can be sown together in autumn, early enough to become i 
established before winter. Sow two pounds of vetch ) 
to one of rye. Both make early growth in spring and 
produce a large amount to plow under for the crop. > 
The vetch contains some nitrogen, which becomes 
available for the crop later on. This is not practicable i 
for very early potatoes, as they are planted long before 
rye and vetch make growth of material value, but 
for later or main crop, where clover or alfalfa cannot 
be had, will prove a great aid in supplying both humus 
and nitrogen. 

While clover sod is the best to plow down for potatoes, 
a good timothy sod, properly handled, is not to be 



13 

i despised. Plow in the fall. Winter rains will pack 
'the soil and cause a more thorough rotting of sod in 
time for the plants to feed upon it. This requires 
much work in spring with the harrow, previous to 
planting, for the soil is seldom worked deep enough 
for the best results. A better method, and one which 
'has given fine results, is, instead of plowing the sod 
■ in the fall, work it up with the disc harrow to the depth 
of five or six inches, then if packed to any extent 
by winter rains, harrow once or twice in the spring; 
.then plow and harrow and thus have the whole depth 
plowed, thoroughly pulverized, and the worked up 
sod mixed through it, puts it in the best condition for 
I the crop. Timothy sod prepared in this thorough 
\ manner is better than a good clover sod half worked, 
'and nicer potatoes will be produced than from clover, 
but not as cheaply, owing to the extra labor involved 
and the higher nitrogen content required, in the 
fertilizer used. 

• CAUSES OF THE RUNNING OUT OF THE POTATO.— 
Within the memory of living man all that was re- 
quired to raise an abundant crop was to plant; no 
matter how, so long as soil covered the seed. Methods 
'of culture which produced large crops then, if followed 
to-day, would not pay for the seed. The vigor of the 
'tuber in those days not only produced an abundant 
crop, but its true seed, often under the worst methods. 
The decline of this vigor, dates from the advent east, 
>of the Colorado potato beetle; the injury it did in 
'stripping the vines of leaves was one of the prime 
causes of this loss; another and greater was the use 
of Paris Green to kill the pest. These two, one destroy- 
ing foliage entirely and the other poisoning the plant 



14 



" 



by absorbing arsenic, acting continuously on the easte 
crop, did incalculable damage to the vigor of the potal 
So much has this been impaired, that few of t|jf 
present generation have ever seen a potato boll, in 
true seed of the plant, the plants no longer possessi • 
vitality enough to produce a crop and the seed b 
also. 

The habit of producing seed bolls is more pronounc 
in some varieties than others. Some possess gre!;, 
vigor, but little in producing tubers of good quali 
that grow seed bolls. Yet these are of little use n 
the grower. Again, many of the best varieties in poii 
of yield and quality will, if given proper culture a:; 
protection, which will not in itself injure the vino 
produce many seed bolls. Within the past ten yea 
seed bolls in more or less abundance have been pick; 
from varieties of best quality and largest in yiei 
New varieties have been brought forward, many j 
great promise and vigor, only to soon run out, chiel 
from causes shown, but helped in minor ways. 

Farmers saved and planted only culls; these yield J 
good results years ago before the bug and pois< 
destroyed old-time vitality, but they rarely give i 
paying crop today. This is true of many older van 
ties, which have so far lost their vitality that it t 
useless to endeavor to bring them back to productive 
equal to some of the newer varieties. Thousands a 
today planting potatoes so low in vitality that 
raise a paying crop under any system of cultivate 
and protection, even in favorable seasons, is impossib 

The remedy in northern states is, to obtain sor 
newer strain, make careful selection each year from t 
best and most vigorous hills and safeguard these 1, 



15 




inry. due to arsenical. poisoning 



16 

a system of protection against insects and blight 
that will not in itself destroy the vitality of the plant* 

A general effort is manifest of late to obtain a potat 
of large yielding capacity and good quality and bligh 
resisting, but with little success, doubtless becaus 
those performing the work failed to realize the dead! 
influence arsenical poisons have on plant vitality. 

If a blight proof potato is ever found, it will b 
developed upon lines eliminating all possibility c 
arsenical poisoning or insect injury, because it is impoj 
sible to produce it under methods which each yea 
saps to greater or less extent original vitality. Then 
is little hope of a seedling from the seed boll of plant 
whose vitality has been impaired by arsenical poisoning 
or which will develop vigor enough to be blight proo 
unless the plant producing the seed boll has behin 
it years of unimpaired vigor, never obtainable 
insect injury or arsenical poisoning has existed. 

The orchardist of Colorado knows that Paris Gree 1 
not only poisoned and killed his trees, but poisone 
his land as well. If potatoes today possessed the vigc 
they had before Paris Green was used, it is believe 
that under present-day methods of culture and fertil: 
zation, the yield would be double the present average; 

POTATOES FOR SEED.— Seed of strong vitality 
vital to success. The loss from poor seed is c 
startling proportions. Many have abandoned plant 
ing, believing their land unsuited to potato growing 
when successful growers on other soil would also hav 
failed with the same seed. Experiments prove, tha 
the seed used, largely governs the yield. No care ca 
produce good crops where the plants are weak. Failur 
is sometimes due to other causes, but the usual caus 



17 

is poor seed. The true seed comes from the boll, while 

the tuber itself is only an enlargement of the under- 

. ground stem, and as such it partakes of the nature 

! of the vine that produces it. If the vine be vigorous, 

j with ability to resist disease, so will its tuber be, and if 

properly stored and planted will produce the same 

type of plant next season. "Like begets like," and if 

weak seed is used, weak vines will follow. Favorable 

conditions may produce a crop from such seed, but the 

. fact remains that had good seed been planted on the 

same soil, under the same conditions, a larger yield 

j would have resulted. Good seed is worth all it costs, 

but poor seed is dear at any price. 

A practice prevails of planting second-sized potatoes, 
regardless of whether they come from vigorous hills 
or not. This is wrong. Seconds planted, year after 
year, only results in the early decline of the variety. 
Seconds are all right for seed, if selected from hills 
showing vigor of plant and liberal yield of good, large, 
marketable tubers other than the one or more second 
\ size which the hill contains. 

The practice of hill seed selections at least every two 

, or three years, should prevail and every year should yield 

better results. This involves extra labor, but not as 

much as the average grower surmises, and is worth many 

1 times the cost. The process is simple, and more uni- 

I formity can be had by limiting the selection to the one- 

f stalk hills. This can be varied by adopting a standard of, 

say, not less than four good marketable potatoes to each 

hill of one stalk and not less than seven to each hill of 

two stalks, and ten to the three-stalk hill, each grown 

from a single seed piece. When the field for selection if 

from one-half to two-thirds ripened off, the grower, 



18 

armed with a bundle of sticks, goes systematically ov€ 
it and marks with a stick every hill found showing moi 
vigor than the rest, until hills enough are marked t 
supply seed for next season. Later, when the field 
ready to harvest, it should be gone over and the marke 
hills dug with a potato fork. Although vigor ws 
apparent at the time of marking, the marker was ignorar 
then as to whether or not those hills contained tb 
requisite tubers. Not every vigorous hill has tubei 
desirable for seed, either in number of tubers per hil 
size or quality. 

Marked hills that produce less tubers per stalk thai 
the standard requires; any that vary in type from th 
original, or for other reasons, such as roughness c 
prongs, should be discarded. Selecting by this metho 
we obtain the following results: 

First. Vigor, which is of prime importance, and I 
seed crop which withstood insects and blight withou 
injury. Again we have discarded the weak stoo 
which fungus disease attacks and which spreads an 
frequently destroys a whole planting. An entire croi 
has been lost at times by a few weak hills in a fiel> 
affording breeding places for fungus disease. 

Second. Seed obtained from hills that have pro: 
duced the requisite number of marketable tuben 
thus safeguarding maximum crop results. 

Third. Eliminating any tendency to sprout, ai 
evil rampant in some of the best varieties, keepinj 
the variety true to name, and stopping losses froD 
mixed seed, the bane of every grower. 

The seed grower making selection in this manne: 
for his own plantings obtains a crop certain to giv< 
satisfaction to the purchaser intending to plant, an< 



19 

hence the value of the product is increased. Expe- 
rience proves that a single selection made in the manner 
suggested increased the yield the following year over 
100 bushels per acre. This method, intelligently 
pursued, should obviate the necessity of purchasing 
other seed, and the yield per acre could soon be 
doubled without additional expense to the grower 
for seed. 

In sections where it is not deemed necessary to ob- 

1 tain new seed each year, and where a new variety, or a 
new stock of an old variety from which to grow seed is 

1 desired, if unable to obtain seed grown from selected 
hills, then buy larger-sized potatoes of the variety want- 
ed, smooth and free from disease. Accept nothing 

1 under a pound each of the medium late or main crop 
varieties. This weight is proof that the seed obtained 
has vigor, for no weak, sickly stalk ever produced a 

' tuber weighing a pound. Planting these, hill selection 

' can be made from hills producing the most tubers per 
hill in weight and number, and the purchaser thus 
obtains new seed possessing both vigor and produc- 

: tiveness at a minimum cost. In selecting seed stock 
upon this plan the size of tubers must be governed 

1 somewhat by the variety; for instance, with the "Green 
Mountain" or "Norcross," a tuber weighing a pound 
is not an overgrown one, for under favorable conditions 
this variety produces nice smooth tubers weighing two 
or two and one-half pounds, and the pound specimen 
may be only one of a half dozen grown on a single 
vigorous stalk, while a variety like the "Irish Cobbler," 
weighing from one-half to three-fourths of a pound, 
would indicate vigor, and is safe to plant and make hill 
selection from. 



20 




33 



21 

VARIETIES. — It is vital that the grower obtain the 
variety suited to his locality. It is a common occur- 
rence to see two varieties in the same field, both plant- 
ed on the same day and receiving the same treatment, 
one yielding twice the marketable tubers produced 
by the other, and both being so similar in general 
appearance that an ordinary grower is unable to de- 
tect the difference, although one may mean financial 
success and the other loss. In sections where potatoes 
can be raised year after year without changing seed, 
the grower has a chance to test out new varieties and 
seldom suffers heavy loss. Where new seed must be 
bought each year by the large grower and the variety 
secured proves inferior for that section, the loss is 
heavy. Again, the grower to obtain the best re- 
turns from his crop, must conform to shape and 
color demanded by his market. As a rule, the large 
markets demand a round white potato with a shallow 
eye, and there are many such of fine quality. Some 
of the most palatable, largest yielding and blight re- 
sisting varieties known, will not sell well in the city 
markets, simply because the public select by color; 
but for the grower, who sells his crop to home customers, 
they possess value, since his crop, of any color and per- 
haps shape, probably controls the market, adds in- 
dividuality and aids him to build up and retain a 
fine local trade. 

ORIGINATING NEW VARIETIES.— Most new varieties 
are obtained by planting seed from the potato boll, 
formed from the plant's blossom. These bolls contain 
many seeds, each of which produces a different variety. 
The prospect of obtaining a new variety of value is 
greater, if care be exercised in growing the boll from 



22 



/ 



which the seed is taken. Some varieties, which grow 
coarse, ill-shapen tubers of poor quality, seem to exert 
their vitality in producing seed bolls. Varieties of 
this pedigree invariably develop the general character- 
istics of the parent stalk. Very few ever prove of value 
to the general grower. 

To originate new varieties one of the best standard 
varieties should be selected and a proper system of 
culture and protection from insects and blight followed, 
to build up its vitality to the point where the plant 
produces bolls. This is easily done. Obtain seed 
bolls from a field containing only one variety of 
large yielding capacity, combined with very high 
quality and allow no other variety to be planted 
near them. Seed from such a source produces an 
increased per cent, of valuable varieties. Originating 
new varieties is of vital importance to the industry, and 
he who develops new seedlings superior to the older 
standard sorts, is worthy of praise and financial return. 
The new seedling may promise to be a great acquisition 
and prove good until three or four years old and then 
prove worthless in a single year. If the originator 
markets these as seed to repay him for his labor, the { 
purchaser blames him, and his reputation suffers. If a i 
new seedling proves good for seven or eight years, 
increasing in productivity and quality each year, 
the orginator may feel confident that he possesses : 
something of merit and value. The proper way to 
test the new seedling is in general field culture, side by 
side, with the best superior variety to be had. The 
seedling tested should be at least two years old, but 
four or five years old is a truer measure of value. If 
yields prove larger than the superior variety, and quality 



23 

and other characteristics be equal or superior, anct 
this result is obtained for two or more years, it is 
reasonably safe to push its sale. The grower, however, 
is warned not to invest largely in any new seedling 
until tested on his own farm in a small way; a variety 
that will do well in one section may fail in another. 
Every large grower, however, should test the new 
productions. There will be so many to discard, that 
no large sum should be invested in any one until tried 
and proven valuable. 

Growing seedlings is interesting, and in the absence 
of a greenhouse to start them in, they can be started id 
a box in a warm sunny window. The box should be 
nearly filled with leaf mold soil, if possible to obtain 
it, but old rotted barnyard dressing two or three years 
old, will answer. Use none but the fine portion, how- 
ever. Plant the last of March and cover very lightly 
i with this soil and do not allow it to become dry. Allow 
the plants to remain in the box until three or four 
inches high when, if the weather and ground be warm, 
replant in a rich garden spot. They transplant as 
i easily as a tomato. Set eighteen inches to two feet 
apart in a row and give good care the first season. 
; Insects of many kinds devour these young plants un- 
] less protected. Allowed to grow the full season, the 
plants will produce some good-sized tubers the first year, 
i These first year's seedlings sometimes weigh nearly a 
: pound, but this is unusual, and most of them will only 
I reach the size of walnuts. Each hill should be dug 
and kept separate. Probably three-fourths will be 
discarded at the time. Next season all selected for 
! further trial should be planted, as before, in a garden 
spot where better attention and protection against 



24 

insects can be given, than is usually possible in the 
field. The second year more will be discarded, and of 
those preserved there should not be more than a 
peck of each. This is enough to test beside some 
superior variety in the field. If the seed came from 
the boll of a large yielding, fine quality variety, there 
should be one in every hundred plants worth saving. 
If, however, the seed is from a variety, the chief merit 
of which is that it will produce potato bolls in abun- 
dance, one in thousands worth saving is all the grower 
can anticipate, and he should be satisfied. 

WHOLE POTATOES FOR SEED.— Planting small tO( 
medium-sized potatoes whole has occurred to every ] 
grower. The question is one that should be thoroughly i 
understood, and the source from which the seed came 
be known in every case before planting. 

Failure to do this will probably result in loss in crop 
yield; the size, condition and time when planted in- 
fluences results. In testing the value of small-sized 
whole potatoes for seed, under certain conditions, there < 
is no seed we can plant which will produce in yield 
and desirability the results obtainable from medium- 
sized potatoes planted whole. Small tubers planted 
whole should come from good, vigorous hills. This is 
important. They can be selected from the bin, 
provided they were grown from selected seed, where 
the whole field was vigorous and thrifty. If the field 
contained many spindling stalks or weak hills, the small 
potatoes grown there should never be planted. A 
good, vigorous hill seldom produces more than one or 
two tubers small enough to plant whole, and often 
there will not be one in several hills small enough for 
this purpose. The weak spindling stalks, without 



25 

vigor enough to produce large tubers, will invariably 
■ produce those of the size needed for planting whole. 
Hence, unless care is exercised, tubers largely from the 
iweakest hills in the previous crop will be planted; and 
: since "like begets like" the crop suffers. 
I The best size to use are those as large as a medium- 
*i sized hen's egg. Plant in rows three feet apart and 
set fourteen inches apart in the row. This size will 
! require about twenty bushels per acre. If this size 
| is planted in dormant condition, or before sprouts 
i have started, there will usually be from one to three 
I sprouts start from the seed end These start so much 
quicker and stronger than those from eyes nearer the 
i stem end that they will exhaust the plant food con- 
l' tained in the tuber and no sprouts start from the other 
[eyes. If tubers too large are used, the quick starting 
| sprouts on the seed end will not exhaust all the plant 
I: food they contain, and many weak sprouts will start 
\ from the other eyes. These produce nothing of value 
land. are worthless. 

I It is not desirable to plant too small a size even 
| though coming from good vigorous hills, neither is it 
| best to plant any whole potatoes after the eyes have 
j started, as there will be too many stalks in a hill. 
j< This rule can be ignored in early potatoes where the 
j side sprouts are broken off by hand, leaving only one 
I or two of the best on the seed end. 

The advantage of planting whole seed when they 
[come from thrifty, vigorous hills is that they are 
[.certain to produce a perfect stand of plants regardless 
I of the weather after planting. The vines grow faster 
and the crop matures one to two weeks ahead of cut 
seed planted at the same time and under the same con- 
I ditions. The crop will be smoother and rounder than 



26 

usually obtained from cut seed. Why this is so, is not 
apparent. In planting whole seed, more fertilizer, 
if desired, can be used without injury to the seed, 
because there is no cut surface to come in contact 
with. There is also less injury to whole seed from wire 
worms, if present in the soil, than to cut seed. 

SPROUTING OR BUDDING SEED POTATOES.— Time can 
be gained by budding or sprouting seed to be planted 
for early market, but this method is limited to small 
growers who have time for the work; to owners of small 
gardens, desiring early potatoes for their table, any- 
thing hastening early maturity is of value. While 
potatoes can be sprouted for later planting with the 
planter, the sprouts must not attain growth enough to 
be broken off in the machine, which will occur if the 
buds attain much growth, resulting in loss of vitality, . 
as part of the plant food stored in the seed piece has i 
been exhausted. The second sprouting being weaker 
than the first cannot, other things being equal, pro- 
duce as many tubers as the first sprouting. 

In starting sprouts for early hand planting, light 
and air, with reasonable warmth, are essential. The 
stronger the light, the shorter and greener the sprouts. 
For very early planting, start the sprouts in semi- 
darkness, so they will be a dark pink color, thick 
and stalky. These will push through the soil quicker 
than the short, dark green sprouts started in bright 
sunlight. Potatoes so sprouted should be planted 
before too far advanced, otherwise it will be impossible 
to cut and plant without breaking off the sprouts. 
A limited quantity for veiy early planting in the kitchen 
garden can be put in boxes, not over five or six inches 
deep, placed in the light, where heat is moderate, and 



27 

sprouted. Where a larger area is involved an available 
barn floor will do, provided light and warmth enough 
can be obtained, or they can be spread out of doors 
in a dry, warm, sunny place. In the latter case care 
must be taken to fully protect them from cold nights, 
as long as danger of freezing exists. Very early pota- 
toes, being usually planted before late frosts cease, 
must be sprouted one to two weeks before planting; 
danger of sprouting out of doors so early is obvious. 

If the sprouts are but slightly started, exposure to 
the light and heat of the sun softens and turns the 
tuber green, so, that in cutting, the action of the knife 
will be noiseless, and such tubers will come up quicker, 
even though the sprouts at planting show little growth. 
Perfectly kept potatoes are usually too hard to cut 
and plant at once. Cutting with an ordinary knife, 
with a comparatively thin blade back, cracks and breaks 
the tissues and injures the seed. If necessary to use 
seed in this condition, it is imperative that a very 
thin-bladed knife be used in cutting, to avoid injury 
to the tissues, although more difficult for the operator. 

SELECTING AND CUTTING SEED.— Having selected a 
variety that thrives in his locality, the grower must 
select seed free of scab. Good, smooth tubers, of aver- 
age size, will cut more uniformly, and this saves 
trouble if for use in the planter. It is more important, 
in using a planter that seed be cut to uniform size 
than that there be a given number of eyes to each 
piece. Hand-cutting, by one who knows how, is pre- 
ferred to any cutting machine, which invariably 
mangles the seed and causes an uneven stand. For 
hand-cutting, the knife must be very thin, just as thin 
as it can be and stand the work. This enables the user 



28 

to cut more in a day, as he feels little resistance from 
the knife passing through the tuber, and the pieces 
will not be mangled. 

In cutting potatoes large enough for over four 
pieces, it is better to first cut the tuber in half, and, if 
very large, into quarters. In cutting either into halves 
or quarters, cut above the eyes. The eyes of a potato 
have roots always running toward the stem end. These 
convey the plant food, the tuber contains, to the 
sprouts. If these roots are cut off close to the eye, 
while there may be a large piece above the eye or 
towards the seed end, the sprouts will not derive 
the food the piece contains, as it has no eye roots 
running towards that end of the tuber, hence it will 
not make as strong or thrifty a plant, or yield the 
tubers, it otherwise would. If the potato to be cut 
is a medium-sized one, or what is termed a good second, 
the stem end is cut off, cutting above at least one 
good eye and taking about one-third of the tuber. 
This usually allows from one to three or more good i 
eyes on this stem end third of the tuber, even in a 
variety possessing but few eyes. The long cut is made • 
by cutting from the upper or seed end down towards 
the stem end. This makes three pieces of a tuber i 
of this size, and there will always be enough eyes on i 
each and very evenly divided between the three : 
pieces. It also has the advantage of having them 
of uniform size, which insures much better work with 
any planter. It being no more work to cut above the 
eye, and since the potatoes will then come up more 
vigorously, it is well to observe it. Plant in rows three 
feet apart and drop fourteen inches apart in the rows. 

Cut seed must never remain in bags or piles. All 



29 

danger of heating must be avoided. Seed that is 
heated, even a very little, is unfit to plant, and if it 
comes up at all it is weak and spindling and beyond 
all possibility of growing a paying crop. The proper 
way to treat cut seed is, to sprinkle it liberally with 
land plaster (gypsum), as fast as cut. Be sure to 
cover all the cut surface with plaster. This keeps 
the seed cool and prevents drying out, and if spread 
out not over six inches deep until needed to plant will 
not hurt, even if cut a week or ten days before planting, 
provided it is kept in a cool, shady place. If fertilizer 
is used in planting, the land plaster also prevents 
it from coming in contact with the cut surface of the 
seed, which it might otherwise do, causing partial 
decay before the sprout starts, and frequently the total 
loss of the seed. This is more apt to take place when 
seed is planted as fast as cut, and experience proves 
that the best results come from seed cut twenty-four 
to forty-eight hours before planting and liberally 
sprinkled with land plaster when cut. It will pay to 
observe this rule. 

The size of cut pieces has much to do with the vigor 
of the sprout, and a liberal piece should be allowed, 
especially if the weather is cold and wet at planting 
time. With rows three feet apart and pieces dropped 
fourteen inches in the row, twelve bushels of seed 
per acre is none too much, but if the weather is warmer 
and the soil warm and moist the seed can be cut finer, 
say to ten bushels per acre, and a good, vigorous stand 
result. Many growers clip the tip off the seed end 
of the tuber. There is nothing gained by this; in 
fact, it is often a distinct loss. The one or two eyes 
directly on the seed end of the tuber are the earliest 



30 

and most vigorous, and clipping these off, often deprives 
the grower of the strongest and best seed eyes. This 
may not be true of some varieties, but certainly is of 
the majority. The general belief of those who practice 
this is, that there will be so many stalks from the cluster 
of eyes at the seed end that there will be too many 
potatoes set to grow to good market size. This is 
not true of potatoes planted in a dormant condition, 
as one or two, usually one eye on the seed or tip end, 
will start so much quicker and stronger that all the 
plant food in the potato, if small or moderate-sized 
pieces, will be absorbed and the other eyes fail to grow. 
PLANTING EARLY POTATOES IN A SMALL WAY.— 
Those who grow a few very early varieties for their 
table, and desire very early results, can expend more 
time, etc., than large growers. A few days gained, 
more than pays for the extra outlay to obtain results. 
A warm, sunny Southern, or better still Southeastern 
slope, on land little subject to late frosts, will, of 
course, be the best. It must be well fitted by deep 
plowing as soon as the frost is out and work can be 
done. Frequent working with the harrow, both to 
fine and lighten the soil as well as to warm it, will, 
if it can be done without too much cost, help gain a i 
few extra days and thus prove profitable. Harrow 
just after the heat of the day, turning under top or 
warm soil and turning up colder soil beneath and 
repeated in a few days, if weather is warm, will increase 
warmth in a soil. A few extra degrees of heat gained 
then, means much to the early grower. When the soil, 
is well fitted, furrows must be opened deeply, and 
for early varieties, a distance of from 26 to 34 inches 
between furrows is room enough. For extra early, 



31 




32 

nothing will force a quick growth better than fine hen 
manure, it being rich in nitrogen. If the seed when 
cut is well sprinkled with land plaster and when 
planting sulphur is spread along the rows, little scab 
damage will result from the use of hen dressing when 
the crop is harvested early. Later on, when the pota 
toes have well started, some fertilizer containing an 
abundance of phosphoric acid and potash, to force 
tuber formation and growth, should be used. When 
hen manure is used it must be drilled along the furrow 
and mixed into the soil, so seed pieces when dropped 
will not come in direct contact with it. The same 
rule applies to commercial fertilizer. If necessary to 
use stable manure it will not harm seed to drop it 
upon the dressing. This is objectionable because o 
the labor in drilling the manure and the danger of 
scab. Rot seldom attacks very early potatoes. 

The seed pieces should be dropped, say 15 inches 
apart in the row. It is a needless waste of time and 
labor to place seed with the sprouts up. Careful 
tests prove that if there is any difference in time of 
coming up, it favors pieces dropped with sprouts 
down . The first covering of this seed, while it depends 
somewhat on the nature of the soil, should be light, 
not over 1$ inches in the heavier and 2£ inches in the 
lighter soils; the rows must be deep enough so that, 
after covering the seed, a depression remains of two 
or three inches. If the seed has been well sprouted 
and carefully planted it will begin to break ground 
in from one to two weeks, according to weather. 
The depression in the rows must be gradually filled 
in as the plants grow. The weeder can be used if 
run lightly, but care must be taken not to break off 



33 

any sprouts from these early potatoes, as the time 
taken from the weakened seed pieces to force another 
sprout will make it so late, that, that hill will be worth- 
less when the others are ready to dig, and might just 
as well have been destroyed. 

If frost threatens, after the plants break ground, 
they should be buried with soil; this can be done 
quickly with the horse hoe, and if a depression exists 
along the row they can be buried quite deeply without 
making too much of a ridge, and when danger of frost 
is over the weeder can again be used to level the 
ground, thus killing all weeds started. This puts the 
field in condition to bury again if more frost threatens 
Prior to this, however, fertilizer should be scattered 
along the rows, and covered about three inches by 
the second burying. This will not injure the plants, 
and one or two new sets of roots will start out around 
the stalk above this second application. If this ferti- 
lizer contains quite a per cent, of nitrogen, in the form 
of nitrate of soda, it will give the plant a very quick 
start, because at this period they have a well-developed 
root system. Nitrogen will not be much needed when 
hen manure has been used in planting, but a fertilizer 
containing a high per cent, of phosphoric acid and 
potash applied in the same manner would be highly 
beneficial. The point about early potatoes is, to get 
them up as soon as possible, so they can develop 
root growth, and still keep the tops small enough 
so they can be covered with soil at any time, if this 
protection from late frosts is required. With a well- 
developed root system and second application of fer- 
tilizer applied at just the right time, a crop can be 
produced that will catch the high prices of the early 



34 






market. Obviously this method cannot be used in 
large fields, where necessary to use the planter, but 
in a small way it has advantages. Well sprouted 
seed planted, and covered lightly at first opportunity, 
insures a perfect stand of plants. This will many times 
compensate for the cost of the extra labor involved. 

Another method for the kitchen garden grower is, 
to take medium potatoes of about the size of a large 
hen's egg and sprout them as before described. Ati 
planting, break off all sprouts, leaving one or two of 
the best and strongest at the seed end. There will 
not then be one chance in a hundred of the seed rottingi 
in the ground, no matter how cold or wet the weathei< 
may turn. Of all eyes on a potato, those on the seed 
end are earliest and strongest, and by removing alj 
but one or two of these, the very earliest and mosl 
vigorous eyes remain. These having such a start, wil 
absorb so much of the plant food the tuber contains 
that enough seldom remains to start any more stalks: 
Whole potatoes of the size described, planted wholo 
in dormant condition, or before eyes have started 
seldom produce an average of more than four stalk 
to each tuber. This is too many for best results wit) 
very early varieties, as the crop yield would be to" 
numerous and too small in size. By breaking ot 
all but two or three, or all but one, if large-sized tuber 
are wanted very early, there would be but one stron 
vigorous stalk to a hill, which will produce the desire 
result. 

If the grower will take two bushels of medium tuber: 
about hen's egg size and in dormant conditioi 
cutting one bushel in halves, thirds or quarters, a 
best suits him, and plant the other bushel whole, sid 



35 

by side with the cut ones, at the same time and under 
same treatment, he will find those planted whole will 
mature from a week to ten days ahead of those cut. 
Cutting the tubers seems to delay maturing the crop. 
A tuber the size of a hen's egg sprouted, as it must be to 
get a very early start and planted whole, will, if all the 
eyes have gotten well started, produce a stalk from each 
eye or too many in a place, and to obtain earliest results 
from both sprouting and planting whole seed, we must 
break off all but one or two of the strongest sprouts, in 
planting medium-sized potatoes whole. This requires 
too much labor except for small growers. 

PLANTING EARLY POTATOES IN A LARGE WAY.— 
Where the acreage is sufficient to require the use of the 
planter, the sprouts must not be allowed to advance as 
much as with tubers intended for hand-planting. But 
if an early crop is desired, much time can be gained by 
starting the sprouts in a warm, light place. The long, 
white sprouts which start in the cellar are useless and 
only sap the vitality of the tuber, causing the next 
set of sprouts to be weaker, and neither will produce 
the crop of tubers a first sprout properly started would. 
Seed must be kept in a cold, dark place, where the 
temperature is about thirty-five degrees, to obtain best 
results. A few weeks previous to planting remove them 
to a warm, light place, and spread where the sprouts will 
start. The sun should not shine directly upon potatoes 
about to be sprouted, for the very early crop to be 
planted in a small way by hand, as described under tha f 
head, but it is all right for those to be machine-planted. 
The sun will green and toughen the sprouts, and at the 
same time soften the tubers. Potatoes exposed to 
direct sunlight will sprout more slowly and will be 



36 

stouter and less liable to break off. In other words, 
direct sunlight puts the potato in better condition to 
sprout quickly when planted in suitable soil, while 
also starting them least before planting. Since seed 
which is to be run through a planter must not have the 
sprouts more than well started, because of the danger of 
them breaking off, this is a decided advantage. 

Potatoes warmed and softened by the sun, with the 
sprouts just well showing in the eyes, will go forward 
and be from one to two weeks ahead of the same seed 
taken direct from storage, and, when cutting, also 
affords a chance to discard all tubers with impotent 
eyes and all in which sprouts fail to appear. This 
insures a much better stand of plants. 

The ground should be well fitted to permit the i 
planter to do its best work. The depth to plant early 
potatoes with the machine must, to a certain extent, 
be governed by local conditions. In sections where 
there is little danger of moisture becoming short early 
in the season, shallow planting can be done. The 
deeper they are covered, the longer the delay in coming 
up, and in many cases the weaker they will be. If 
the crop is desired as early as possible, they must not 
be covered over two inches below the surface, after the 
ridges which the machine left in planting are leveled i 
off. This leveling should be done at once after plant-; 
ing. To insure all seed being covered an average of 
two inches deep after the surface has been leveled, the 
machine must be set so that there will be at least five 
inches of soil over the surface as the planter leaves the 
rows before leveling. The extra three inches of soil 
should be leveled off at once, as it prevents both air, 
light and warmth from penetrating to the seed, and 



37 




38 

delays growth and retards maturity many days. 
The top soil is the warmer in very early spring, but we 
must remember the fact, that as the season advances 
the deeper soil contains more moisture and is in better 
condition for growth of tubers than soil nearer the 
surface. Even early tubers must be rooted as deeply 
as possible, and when planted only two inches below 
the surface we have made as great a sacrifice for warmth 
and an early start as circumstances permit. 

In planting early varieties do not use over 700 or 
800 pounds of high-grade fertilizer per acre in the 
drill at planting time. Early varieties, as a rule, are 
not as vigorous as the later or main crop, and the 
amount of fertilizer that many times will not cause 
appreciable damage to the later kinds may do much 
injury to seed of an early variety. Rows of early 
varieties, with its smaller growth of vine, can be several 
inches closer together, most growers planting from 
twenty-six to thirty inches. In planting early pota- 
toes, it is better to have fertilizer of two different 
formulas, one to have its nitrogen in a slower form 
than nitrate of soda, as it is usually several weeks 
before the plants have root growth enough to use it. 
Nitrate of soda is available over night when placed 
in a damp soil, and, in case of heavy rain previous to 
the potatoes breaking ground, be largely lost to the 
crop. When plants are well up so the rows can be 
plainly seen, the balance of the fertilizer should be 
applied. Experience proves that best results are 
obtained by applying this along the rows and by hill- 
ing the plants, covering them some three or more 
inches. This second application can have its nitrogen 
content largely in the form of nitrate of soda. The 



39 

plants will now have a large root system, and can use 
it, and it will cause them to make a very quick growth 
at this time. This is desirable, as the quicker the 
ground is covered with vines, the less moisture is lost 
by evaporation, and the more rapid the growth at 
this time the less real injury occurs by insects, notably 
that scourge to early potatoes, the flea beetle. The 
quicker vine growth can be obtained on early potatoes, 
the better, and there is no way in which to so rapidly 
push it, as by an application of fertilizer along the rows, 
containing its nitrogen in the form of nitrate of soda, 
after the plants have broken the ground and have 
formed a well developed root system. 

PLANTING THE LATE OR MAIN CROP.— In this but 
little difference in the method is required from the 
machine-planted early crop. Seed should never be 
allowed to sprout in storage, as the sprouts are useless 
and result in great loss of vitality. When seed stock 
is found starting in storage, before it can be used, remove 
and spread it in the sunlight, but not over one deep. 
Potatoes that have begun to sprout will keep longer and 
in better condition to plant, when spread in direct sun- 
light than in any other way. If kept in cold storage, 
at a temperature too low to sprout, they require much 
more time to break ground than if warmed up a short 
time before planting. The ideal way to treat any in- 
tended for seed is to keep them at a temperature 
that prevents sprouting, and a short time before needed 
for planting, place them in the light and sun. Those 
for late or main crop, spread out thinly and expose to 
the sun's direct rays, just long enough to start the buds 
well. They can be spread out of doors on the grass, 
but it is more prudent to keep them in a building with 



40 

windows enough to admit plenty of sunlight ; there is 
then no danger of injury by late frost. In cutting such 
potatoes, all weak-eyed ones can readily be detected 
and discarded. This would be impossible if cut as 
removed from storage. Seed handled in^ this way 
preserves its vitality for the sprouts which make the 
crop. 

This one point in handling seed may make the differ- 
ence between good profit and great loss. The method 
of cutting seed is described under that head. The 
planting of the late or main crop should be deeper 
than for the early. The general early crop is planted 
more shallow than the late because the ground is cold, 
and rot is likely to cause loss of seed if it is delayed 
in coming up by being planted as deeply as the later 
varieties. With the late or main crop, it is different, 
as planting is later and the soil warmed up, and being 
well prepared the machine must be set to drop the seed 
three inches deep, even in the heavier clay loams, and 
four inches is better in most soils adapted to potato 
growing. Use one-half the amount intended to be 
drilled at time of planting, or up to one-half ton of 
high grade fertilizer per acre. It is not advisable 
to use more than this, even on the vigorous late varie- 
ties, unless medium -sized whole potatoes are planted. 
In which event, as much as one ton of high-grade 
fertilizer per acre can be used with little harm to the 
seed, especially if the seed has been well started by 
exposure to light and sun. 

Main crop varieties, which are usually of much 
larger vine growth, must be planted in rows wider apart 
than early kinds. The practice in Maine is from thirty- 
two to thirty-six inches and about fourteen inches 



41 

apart in the row. Some of the best late variety grow- 
ers are forced to plant twelve inches in the row, to keep 
the size down to marketable demands. This may not 
prove necessary in many sections, where dry weather 
cuts the size down more than along the Maine coast. 

STABLE MANURE.— This should rarely be used when 
planting potatoes, because of a tendency to cause scab 
and rot, and is only resorted to when land lacks humus 
or vegetable matter. The potato demands humus 
in the soil for best results, and only when it can be sup- 
plied in no other way is it wise to resort to manure just 
before planting. 

The time to apply it to land for potatoes is just 
after the potato crop is removed, when, succeeding 
other crops, following in rotation, will leave the soil 
in such condition that when the same ground is used 
again for potatoes, little tendency to either scab or 
rot will remain. When applied to newly-seeded clover, 
after potatoes, it will aid in producing a perfect and 
vigorous stand of clover, thus insuring a good sod to 
plow under and furnishing vegetable matter for the next 
crop of tubers. A good crop of tubers free from scab 
and rot has been grown with an application of manure, 
but this is exceptional, and the safest way is to use 
this material in growing other farm crops. 

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZER.— Probably no crop grown, 
where plant food in commercial fertilizer form must 
be bought, now yields so great an average profit as the 
potato, hence plant food in this form is much resorted to. 
Commercial fertilizer will not, however, supply the bac- 
teria absolutely essential to soil productiveness, nor does 
it supply vegetable matter, also necessary for the bacteria 
in the soil to live and thrive on. Belief exists that liberal 



42 

use of strong potash salts, treated South Carolina Rock, 
and nitrate of soda, tend to kill the bacteria by direct 
contact with them in the soil. If repeated every year, 
without manure to create new bacteria, a few years 
only elapse until the soil, deprived of bacteria, refuses 
to produce any paying crop, regardless of the plant 
food it contains. It has lost bacteria; its mechanical 
condition and its water holding capacity; become 
heavy, inclined to bake after rains, and instead of a 
moist, lively look, appears dry and dead. 

Those who cannot keep live stock can grow potatoes 
by using commercial fertilizer continuously and main- 
tain the productivity of the soil, but if humus or 
vegetable matter is wanting maximum crops are remote. 
If, however, humus and bacteria are maintained, each 
year should reveal more and better crops. 

All soils have plant food locked up in them, in vary- 
ing degree, regardless of how exhausted they seem, 
and productivity is restored by the action of acids 
formed by decomposing vegetable matter, breaking 
down and making this available. Bacteria aids in 
decomposing vegetable matter forming these acids, 
which liberate this mineral food. 

The potato grower's object in using commercia 
fertilizer wholly, is to get and maintain sufficient 
vegetable matter in his soil to obtain results from 
its application. The amount used per acre should not 
be governed by the amount the crop is assumed to 
remove. Hence, the most successful growers apply 
much more phosphoric acid and potash than any crop 
of tubers can consume. There are sections where little 
potash seems required, while phosphoric acid is needed 
in quantity, although the crop itself needs little of 



43 

the latter. This fact renders impossible any set for- 
mula for general use in making or selecting a suitable 
fertilizer for all soils or locations. This must be deter- 
mined with due consideration as to what the crops, 
which follow, will need. 

A 4-6-10 formula is more used in Maine than any 
other. This is stated, not as a guide for other growers 
but because in no section are exhausted, abandoned 
farms being brought to productivity so rapidly as 
there. This formula not only gives Maine the largest 
potato yield per acre produced in any State, but is 
adapted to its general rotation. That phosphoric acid 
and potash can be varied to suit different sections, 
and yield even better results than many growers now 
obtain, seems probable. As a general formula 4-6-10 
will doubtless suit as many different soils as any, where 
crop rotation, potatoes included, is practiced and soil 
productivity is to be increased. 

The amount of plant food removed from the soil by a 
crop of 300 bushels of potatoes is about 58 pounds of 
nitrogen, 27 pounds of phosphoric acid and 80 pounds 
of potash. As heat and cold, dry or wet weather 
affects the availability of the plant food in a fertilizer, 
we must apply much more potash and phosphoric acid 
than the crop consumes, to render available what the 
crop needs, at the time it needs it, to obtain the maxi- 
mum yield. In sections where potato growing with 
commercial fertilizer is practiced the best farmers 
use a ton per acre of fertilizer of the 4-6-10 analysis. 
This means 200 pounds of potash, 120 pounds of phos- 
phoric acid and 66 pounds of actual nitrogen. After a 
crop of 300 bushels per acre, there remains in the soil 
120 pounds of potash, 93 pounds of phosphoric acid 



44 

and 8 pounds of nitrogen. Nitrogen is the most elusive 
element in fertilizer, and it is not economical to apply 
much more of it in any one season than the crop grown 
that season consumes. The margin between what 
a crop of this size consumes in nitrogen and the amount 
applied in a ton of this fertilizer is so narrow that if 
the crop depended altogether for nitrogen on what was 
applied in this way its growth would suffer. This 
is most obvious in dry seasons. If potatoes are planted 
as they should be, on land containing more or less 
organic matter, nitrification is in process and supplying 
enough available nitrogen for all the crop requires to 
do its best. 

The office of nitrogen is to promote vine growth of 
the plants, and an abundance of this element causes 
a heavy dark green growth, and a fertilizer not well 
balanced with phosphoric acid and potash might, and 
invariably does, produce much vine growth with few 
and small tubers. If any element is lacking, toward the 
last of the season, it should be nitrogen, whereas 
plenty of available nitrogen applied early in the season 
promotes vine growth to cover the ground, prevents 
evaporation of moisture, checks weed growth, and a 
good crop usually results. Potash and phosphoric acid 
promote formation and develop tubers later in the 
season, which grow until the vines die. 

After much discussion as to the relative merits of 
muriate or sulphate of potash for this crop, many 
growers accept the belief that the sulphate produces a 
better quality of tuber. Manufacturers charge more 
for goods with the potash-content wholly in the form 
of sulphate. Fertilizer composed of quick-acting forms 
of nitrogen usually yields best results. The method 



45 

and time of applying fertilizer is important, and is 
more fully dealt with under " Planting and Cultivating 
the Crop." 

CULTIVATING THE CROP.— There should be at least 
two deep cultivations. A two-horse double cultivator 
will do deeper and better work and more of it at the 
same time and get nearer the rows without disturbing 
the seed than a single horse cultivator; however, good 
work can be done with the latter. The cultivator 
should be started as soon as the field is planted, running 
it as deep and as near the rows as is safe to do without 
disturbing the seed. The planter wheels having packed 
the soil between rows, cultivation loosens it, allowing 
heat and air to penetrate. When this is finished the 
weeder, brush harrow or plank drag should be used to 
level remaining ridges, because if extra soil remains 
over the rows it prevents air and heat from reaching 
the seed, is valueless, and retards sprout growth, and, 
if rains follow, may injure them and cause weak, 
spindling growth. Allow no more soil over the seed 
than necessary, until the plants are well out of the 
ground, seed being three to four inches deep after 
ground is leveled. Go over the field every few days 
with the weeder, until sprouts approach the surface, 
then discontinue until vines are so well established 
that the weeder breaks off few, if any. A fixed rule 
is never to run cultivator, weeder or other implement 
so as to break or cut off any portion of the root system, 
or break off a sprout where a plant is wanted. If the 
seed piece substitutes a sprout for a broken one, it is 
weaker and later in maturing, and with early potatoes 
is a loss. 

When sprouts are well up and rows plainly visible, 
give a second deep cultivation, running the cultivator 



46 

well up near the rows, being careful not to cut off 
any portion of the root system. This will kill weeds 
between the rows, but many remain along the rows 
not accessible to the cultivator. Plants are now ready 
for the second application of fertilizer. If the nitrogen 
be now in the form of nitrate of soda, plants having 
root systems are in condition to absorb it, and very 
rapid growth will be forced. In this second applica- 
tion use the planter, removing both plows but retain- 
ing the fertilizer attachment and disc coverers. Drive 
right over the rows, drilling the fertilizer while the disc 
coverers bury fertilizer, weeds and potatoes. If 
plants are stalky and strong they will push through 
this loose soil with which buried, and the process will 
kill all small weeds. Set the disc coverers wide enough 
apart to make a broad, low hill or ridge, throwing 
some three inches of soil around and over the plants 
and fertilizer drilled along the row. The vines will 
at once put forth one or two new sets of roots above 
this, and in about two days the fertilized earth will 
be filled with new, white feeding roots. 

This burying process is a Maine practice. While 
not advocating extreme ridge or hill methods, large 
crops of good tubers are rarely obtained unless moder- 
ately hilled. The latter is advocated because pre- 
venting root pruning. Two applications of fertilizer 
are best, since it is a waste of nitrogen to apply a portion 
broadcast before planting, if any of it is in the form of 
nitrate of soda. No method economizes time and 
labor as this does. Both the fertilizer and burying 
is done in once driving over the field, costing less 
than one and one-half hours' time per acre for both. 
Burying potatoes, especially early varieties, should 



47 







48 

be done as soon as rows show plainly. On later and 
more vigorous varieties it can be done without injury 
when from four to six inches high. This method kills 
all weeds and grass and causes the formation of new 
root growth. On early kinds, burying deeply, when 
too large, hurts the growth; hence with these it is 
advisable to so adjust the machine that they will not 
be entirely buried unless the weeds have a bad start, 
when everything should be covered out of sight and 
deep enough to kill all weeds. The cost of hand labor 
to remove weed growth will exceed the damage done 
the vines by burying; much depends upon whether 
sprouts have come up strong and stalky; if weak and 
spindling they will not stand deep covering without 
injury. Vigorous, stalky plants will, in about two days, 
shove right up through several inches of loose soil. 
If some fertilizer falls on the leaves, no harm will 
be done; the plants shove up, making new growth 
from the centre, and all leaf growth covered remains 
buried and perform, no further leaf functions to the 
plant. There are two advantages in this — any eggs 
of the beetle laid on small plants prior to burying 
are destroyed. In some cases these will prove the 
greater number laid during the season. Another is, 
that the plants will send out a new set of roots from 
each joint of stalk below the surface of the soil thrown 
around them, thus enlarging the root system. Apply- 
ing fertilizer at this time, and placing it where the 
plants can at once feed upon it, more than offsets 
the temporary check any good vigorous stalk sustains 
when small, by being covered with loose soil, even 
to the depth of several inches. The cultivator should 
be run between rows immediately after burying the 



49 

plants, to loosen the soil between rows and prevent 
evaporation of moisture. If small weeds spring up 
along the rows again, a second hilling is sometimes 
advisable. Only enough soil should be thrown up 
and around the plants at this time, however, to smother 
the weeds and form a dust mulch; usually it is not 
advisable to make this second covering; the grower 
must be governed by weather conditions and weed 
growth in this; it is always a matter of individual 
judgment. 

The last working of the field should be with the 
cultivator narrowed up to avoid tearing down ridges, 
and it must be run very shallow, just enough to form 
the dust mulch between rows. This system is not 
applicable to sections where dry weather prevails. 
Each grower must decide for himself and be governed 
by his soil and climate. Potatoes grown in the ridge 
system are more easily dug than with level culture, 
and in a wet season are less apt to rot. They are, 
too, less sunburned, and a moderate ridge system of 
cultivation seems to possess more advantages than 
either level or extreme ridge method. 

INSECTICIDES. — Paris Green, Arsenate of Lead and 
Bug Death are those most used, and each has its objec- 
tions and limitations, and the grower must decide 
which to use. 

PARIS GREEN.— This is most generally used for killing 
eating insects. It is a copper compound of arsenic, 
and a deadly poison, and should never be kept where 
children or live stock can reach it. Its action on 
foliage is harmful, and when applied in too strong 
solution is fatal to the plants. When too weak a 
solution is used fields turn a light green, lose their 



50 




51 

thrifty appearance and become a prey to blights. 
Many believe it to be the cause of the late blight or 
rot; this is true only in the sense that its use so weakens 
the plant that the power to resist disease is lowered. 
Its depressing effect on the vines is greater if the 
leaves have been more or less eaten by insects. This 
is especially true of the work of the flea beetle, which 
it does not kill to any appreciable extent. 

Some authorities assert that arsenical poisoning is 
due to the free or water soluble arsenic which the green 
contains, and that the addition of lime will prevent 
all injury. To some extent this is true, and more or 
less lime should always be used in any mixture con- 
taining Paris Green for spraying purposes. That this 
injury can be wholly overcome by the addition of lime, 
has not been the experience of one of the greatest 
potato experts known. That its use on potato fields 
will, in time, impregnate the soil to the extent that it 
will impair the growth of vegetation seems plausible, 
in view of the recent developments in Colorado orchards. 
It must be remembered, however, that the amount 
used per acre of orchard was several times the amount 
usually used on potatoes, and with them, where a 
rotation is followed bringing them on the same field 
only once in three or four years, it would take a much 
longer period of time for the soil to reach conditions 
now found in some of the poisoned orchards of the West. 

For killing the Colorado beetle there is nothing 
cheaper than Paris Green, and the grower using it in a 
spray mixture should add a pound or two of lime to 
every pound of Paris Green. If Bordeaux is used, the 
lime in the Bordeaux will be sufficient, the Paris Green 
being added to the Bordeaux at the rate of one pound 



52 

to each acre of potatoes to be sprayed. Paris Green 
has no fungicide value, and its addition to the mixture 
is simply to combine an insecticide with the Bordeaux. 
Used in this way, it will adhere to vines better than if 
used alone. Those who use it in dry form will injure 
the potato vines least by mixing it with land plaster 
(gypsum), at the rate of one pound of Paris Green to 
fifty of plaster, dusting over the plants with any dust- 
ing apparatus. 

ARSENATE OF LEAD.— This was the result of the 
demand for some poison as effective as Paris Green, 
but without its injurious effects on foliage. It 
has two advantages over Paris Green, in that it 
adheres better to leaves during rainy weather and that 
the injury done vines is less apparent. Experiments 
prove the loss in yield of tubers by its use not to exceed 
one-half that caused by Paris Green. One objection 
to it is, its slow action in killing the bugs. Fields, 
after the third spraying with it, have been seen literally 
swarming with larvae of the beetle. 

It is more costly than Paris Green and is equally 
dangerous to live stock, and, since more pounds of it 
are used per acre, it is open to the same objections as 
a soil poisoner as is Paris Green. However, if obliged 
to resort to the arsenical poisons as a means of killing 
eating insects, use Arsenate of Lead in preference to 
Paris Green, making several sprayings within a few 
days' time when the slugs are hatching out. In this 
way, insects can be destroyed with minimum injury 
to the plants from arsenical poisoning. As it must 
be applied as a spray, it is not so available for those 
not equipped with spraying apparatus as is Paris 
Green, or Bug Death, either of which can be applied 
in dry form. 



53 

BUG DEATH.— This differs from either Paris Green 
or Arsenate of Lead. It is not an arsenical poison, 
but when used in liberal quantities is as effective as 
either of the others. Its advantage over them is that 
it will not injure the foliage, no matter how freely 
applied, and does away with all injury from arsenical 
poisoning to any plant, as well as the more serious one 
of poisoning the soil. It can be dusted over the plants 
as a dry powder or applied in the sprayer with water 
alone or Boadeaux Mixture. Used dry, it is valuable 
for killing the old beetle when plants are very small. 
As vines are more tender at this stage of growth, the 
use of Paris Green is to be avoided where possible, 
even when used with Land Plaster. The objection 
to Bug Death is that it is more costly than Paris Green, 
but experience proves that its beneficial effects more 
than offset the extra cost. 

Growers not having spraying apparatus must either 
leave their crop unprotected from blight or use some- 
thing easily and economically dusted. These find 
Bug Death most valuable. A small bag made of 
cheese cloth or coarse burlap, at a few cents' cost, 
answers for dusting the vines. If thoroughly applied 
three or four times during the season, when vines are 
damp with dew, it not only keeps off all insects, in- 
cluding flea beetle, but gives as good protection against 
blight as Bordeaux Mixture, without involving out- 
lay for spraying outfit. This method of dusting is 
not practicable on large acreage, taking too much time 
for the work, which must be done thoroughly. The 
dust-blowers on the Market do not blow enough to 
be effective, either as an insecticide or protection 
from blight, but the small grower can in no way so 
easily obtain desired results. 



54 

As an addition to Bordeaux Mixture, it is especially 
valuable at dry times. With from fifteen to twenty 
pounds added to the amount of Bordeaux Mixture 
to be applied to the acre, it makes a thick, heavy 
mixture, which, coating the leaves thoroughly, prevents 
a large amount of evaporation of moisture from them, 
and enables plants to live and thrive through a drought, 
when otherwise they would die if sprayed with Bor- 
deaux Mixture and Paris Green. If used dry, not less 
than 25 pounds per acre should be used at an application. 

BORDEAUX MIXTURE.— The standard spraying mix- 
ture used on potatoes as a preventive of blight and a 
repellant of the flea beetle, is Bordeaux Mixture. It 
is condemned by so many growers that there is 
little doubt that it is not all the early advocates claimed 
for it. Experience inclines to the belief, that the 
vitality of the seed planted, many times determines, 
whether or not the crop can be saved by spraying with 
it. It is questionable whether the action of the 
mixture itself is not weakening the vitality of our 
potatoes, despite the protection it usually affords 
against blight. Fields kept thoroughly sprayed 
during July and August, and examined in September, 
rarely fail to reveal leaf injury caused by Bordeaux. 
This appears in a burning, browning and hardening 
of the leaves, and in some cases is a pronounced injury. 
The later in the season vines remain green, the more this 
burning of the copper sulphate shows, yet, when well 
made and intelligently applied, it will increase the crop 
of tubers in most any kind of a season, especially in 
the more northern states. 

The method of preparing Bordeaux has much to do 
with its efficiency in protecting the vines, and there 



55 

are doubtless many using it who fail to mix it properly 
to obtain best results. The old formula is seldom used 
now. This did not carry enough lime, and injury 
led to use of more lime and less vitriol. The 5-5-50 
formula is used, but 5 pounds blue vitriol and 6 pounds 
of lime to 50 gallons of water is better. The ready 
Bordeaux Mixture or the ready mixed dry Bordeaux 
has apparently not given as good results as the home- 
made. The new process lime manufactured answers 
for making Bordeaux, but more of it than of common 
lump lime should be used. Use 7 to 8 pounds new 
process lime to 5 pounds of blue vitriol to get the same 
effect as 6 pounds of common lump lime well and 
properly slaked. New process costs more than lump 
lime and more is needed to obtain the same results. 
Its use is therefore more expensive. To the small, 
and often to the large grower, the facility with which 
it mixes, saves time enough to more than compensate 
for the added cost. Every grower who plans to spray 
his crop should always have a supply of new process 
lime on hand. 

Many plans of making and mixing Bordeaux have 
been suggested, indicating how diluted lime water 
is contained in one barrel, the diluted blue vitriol water 
in another, and both run into the spray tank through 
pipes or hose, where they mix together as they enter. 
This is satisfactory where water is handy and can be 
pumped to the height which permits this to be done. 
This is seldom the case in actual field work with the 
average grower. Probably 90 per cent, of the water 
used to make the mixture is drawn a distance to the 
field. If the distance be more than a few rods, the 
quickest and most economical way is to haul the water 



56 

in large barrels by wagon, rather than in the sprayer 
itself. In this case it is much better to slake the lime 
and dissolve the blue vitriol in that section of the field 
where the greatest saving of time can be made, when 
spraying. Stock mixture should always be made even 
for a few acres, and, as both the lime and vitriol will 
keep indefinitely until mixed together, much time 
can be saved by preparing stock in advance. 

The following stock solution will make 500 gallons 
of Bordeaux: Procure two large barrels holding 50 
gallons each, dissolving in one 50 pounds of blue vitriol 
as follows: Obtain a box about 12 inches square and 
10 to 12 inches deep, and, after removing the bottom, 
tack on the bottom of this frame a piece of brass or 
copper wire netting. Nail two cleats along opposite 
sides near the top so the box will set in the barrel rest- 
ing on the cleats. This places the box in the barrel 
some 8 or 10 inches, according to depth. Pour the 
50 pounds of blue vitriol, to be dissolved, into the box, 
and fill the barrel with water by pouring it through 
the vitriol. More than one-half of the vitriol will 
dissolve in filling the barrel, and as the bottom of the 
box is in the water the balance of the vitriol left in 
it is the best possible position to dissolve quickly, and 
in an hour or two all will be found ready for use. By 
making the box with copper nails and tacking the net- 
ting on the bottom with copper tacks, the box will last 
for years and will save hours of time as well as vitriol. 
This provides 50 pounds of vitriol dissolved in 50 gallons 
of water, or one pound of vitriol to each gallon of water. 
In the other barrel slake 60 pounds of good lump lime. 
First, pour two or three pails of water in the barrel, 
then add the 60 pounds of lime. A good stirring paddle 



57 

should be at hand, for the lime will soon begin to boil. 
The mixer must protect his eyes. Add more water as 
needed, always enough to slake the lime without burn- 
ing. In 10 or 15 minutes the lime will be slaked to 
the consistency of thick paste. If this be done the night 
before wanted, better wait until morning before filling 
the barrel with water, as the lime will slake better if 
kept hot for a few hours. When needed, fill the barrel 
with water. This provides 60 pounds of lime in 50 
gallons of water. 

When ready to spray, first fill the sprayer half full 
of clear water, then add five gallons of the blue vitriol 
water. If an insecticide is to be used, add it at the 
same time. Next, take 5 gallons of the lime water, 
give the pump a turn or two to start the agitator and 
stir the mixture, and if the sprayer is not full, fill it by 
adding clear water. This will make as good Bordeaux 
Mixture as can be obtained, and at lowest cost. 

As the lime water is consumed, add more water, 
always using all the lime the barrel contains in con- 
suming the 50 gallons of blue vitriol water. The ob- 
ject in adding more water to the lime, is to so dilute 
it that it will readily pass through the strainer in the 
sprayer tank. This also dispenses with straining out 
the coarse material which settles in the bottom of the 
lime barrel. Thoroughly sprayed with mixture made 
in this manner five or six times during the season by 
going over and back on the rows at each spraying, 
potatoes will seldom be badly hurt by blight or rot. 
When this does occur, the chances are that there are 
other and obscure causes back of it, such as poor, weak 
seed, which should never be planted. 

SPRAYERS.— These should be well built, with large 
pump capacity, and a strong agitator working close 



58 

to the bottom of the barrel or tank, keeping the mix- 
ture in perfect suspension. Most machines are now 
made to spray four rows at once, and on rough, uneven 
land, this is as many as advisable to try to cover at one 
time. On large, smooth fields, free from stones of any 
great size, six rows can be covered at a time, provided 
the pump has capacity enough to preserve the work- 
ing pressure. A working pressure of 75 to 90 pounds 
is needed when the machine is working with the spray 
turned on, whether spraying four or six rows at a time. 
A sprayer that will not maintain this pressure, day 
after day, is out of order or lacks pump capacity. The 
pump should be made entirely of brass and copper, 
and the plunger so made that the wear of both plunger 
and cylinder can be taken up by putting on the plunger 
leather or canvas cups. These will make the pumping 
capacity of the machine as good as new. Two or three 
days of continuous work will so wear these cups that 
the pressure will begin to fall, and often before the 
operator realizes it, he will be doing inferior work, and 
another set of cups will be necessary. A sprayer re- | 
quires attention and must be kept in first-class work- 
ing condition, otherwise inferior work results, and the 
grower, failing to obtain results, ignorantly condemns 
the process. Either the operator fails to understand 
working the machine and its upkeep in perfect order, 
or the machine itself is defective if results prove un- 
satisfactory. Bordeaux Mixture is hard on any sprayer 
because of the lime in its composition, and in the haste 
of busy times, many fail to properly strain the mixture 
as it enters the sprayer, resulting in clogged nozzles, 
impatience of the operator, and unsprayed parts of 
the field allowing insects and blight to get a start. 



59 

The Vermorel nozzle seems best for the potato 
spraying. 

The pump must be fitted with two leads of pipe, a 
return pipe to the tank and one leading to the nozzles, 
and both fitted with a stop cock. After filling the tank, 
when starting for the field, start the pump and open 
the stop cock leading to the tank. This allows the 
agitator to thoroughly stir the mixture while the pump 
is pumping it back to the tank. When the field is 
reached, shut off the stop cock leading to the tank, 
allow the pump a few strokes to create as much pressure 
as wanted, and then turn on the stop cock leading to 
the nozzles. An allowance of a few feet should be made 
before entering the rows so that all nozzles may be 
working in good order when the first hills are reached. 
A little practice in turning the spray on or off will en- 
able the operator to spray the end hills, when enter- 
ing and leaving the rows, as well as the others. 

A first-class power sprayer will be fitted with a waste 
gauge leading to the tank and so arranged that by turn- 
ing a thumb nut the amount of pressure can be easily 
changed. This waste gauge should be set at all times so 
that it will relieve the pressure on the pump before break- 
age occurs on any other part of the machine. It should 
also be fitted with a pressure gauge, allowing the opera- 
tor to see at all times the pressure the pump is under. 
Every machine should be fitted with a good strainer 
with brass or copper wire screen of 30 meshes to the 
inch. This prevents anything passing to the spray 
tank that will clog the nozzles. Some sprayers are 
fitted with a strainer screen of too small a surface, 
which easily clogs when filling the tank, especially when 
straining lime. The aperture in the spray tank should 



60 

be large enough to admit a strainer of 25 to 30 square 
inches of screen. This allows surface enough to rapid- 
ly fill the tank if reasonable care be exercised. All 
these things are of importance to the grower. Often 
a small screen surface strainer requires more time to 
fill the tank than to apply the mixture to the field. 
Any waste of time, when every moment counts, results 
in slighting the work, and must be guarded against. 
A good four-rowed horse power sprayer kept in proper 
condition will perform as perfect work on large areas 
as the small grower does with a knapsack sprayer. 

SPRAYING. — The importance of spraying as a pre- 
ventive of blight is underestimated. This is most no- 
ticeable in late blight or rot. There is hardly a season 
without late blight, and the extra yield from sprayed 
fields more than pays all cost of spraying. Spraying 
thus becomes crop insurance, which no careful grower 
can afford to ignore. 

To be effective, spraying must be carefully and I 
thoroughly done. In ill-planted fields, with crooked I 
rows or rows of varying distance apart, perfect work can- 
not be done. The spray should be forced all through 
the vines, coating the under as well as the upper side i 
of the leaves and stalks. Spraying is a preventive, not ! 
a curative necessity. Hence, it should begin before; 
blight is established, and this is true of the beetle; 
larvae as well. To spray effectively, demands much of 
the sprayer. Nozzles should not be set to point 
straight down, but a little forward or backward. The 
larvae of the beetle seeks the crown of plants and vines, 
and feeds on the tender new leaves there. The spray 
must be forced into the crown of the plant and at the 
same time, angle enough given, to force it among the 



61 

gtalks and under the leaves, coating both with the 
mixture. There should be pressure enough to force 
the spray from the nozzle like a jet of steam. 
The nozzles should be as near the rows as possible 
and spread enough given the spray to cover the whole 
of the row. Avoid the mistake of not adjusting the 
nozzles to the size of the plants to be sprayed, otherwise 
only a narrow strip through the center of the row is 
covered. If nozzles are placed too high, the spray 
loses its force, and consequently fails to reach the 
stalks. Neglect this precaution, and the stems, stalks 
and under side of the leaves derive little benefit, 
although the work has apparently been perfectly done. 
There can be no thorough spraying in going one way 
over the field. The best results are obtained with the 
minimum amount of mixture and use of single nozzles. 
Going over the field and allowing the first application 
to dry on, and then reversing, reaches both sides of the 
hills, and the small crown leaves where the tiny slugs 
congregate, and these then get two sprayings at different 
angles, which practically covers and kills them. Spray- 
ing should begin when the vines are from six to eight 
inches high. Fine caps should be used on the nozzles 
at this first application, as it saves material, and a 
sprayer holding sixty gallons can then be made to 
cover an acre going both ways. If insects are plenty, 
the second application should follow the first in a 
few days. It is sometimes better to make the first 
three sprayings within ten days if the weather is very 
warm and slugs are hatching rapidly. These must 
be killed before any damage is done the vines. At 
this period of rapid growth the foliage is increasing 
so fast that plenty of unsprayed surface is found in 



62 




63 

the crown of the plants by the little slugs as they hatch 
out. For this reason three sprayings are sometimes 
needed to entirely rid a field from slugs. If this work 
is done as it should be, there will be but few bugs 
left to bring out a crop of slugs later in the season, 
and in the subsequent sprayings an insecticide may 
not be needed. 

A field badly eaten by either the flea or Colorado 
beetle is more likely to be attacked by either the early 
or late blight than one kept free from them. This is 
also true of arsenical poisoning, which is much more 
likely to injure the plants if badly eaten by insects, 
especially the flea beetle. The free arsenic, acting on 
the raw, freshly-eaten leaf edges, seems much more 
harmful to them than to uneaten foliage. After the 
first three sprayings, the others can follow at intervals 
of ten days to three weeks, according to weather 
conditions. Dry, cool weather is unfavorable to blight, 
and the period between sprayings can then be longer, 
while moist, hot weather, being favorable to the spread 
of late blight or rot, necessitates shortening the time 
between sprayings. There is a time in the period of 
potato growth when it seems most susceptible to dis- 
ease, especially the late blight; this is just when passing 
out of the blossom stage. If it escapes this critical 
period without harm, it is comparatively easy to keep 
the vines green until late in the season in the more 
northern sections and until killed by frost. This 
means a greatly increased crop, as the last few weeks 
the vines remain green, is when the potato makes 
the most profit for the grower. 

For this reason it is advisable, when potatoes 
are passing out of the blossoming stage, to use more 



64 

gallons of Bordeaux Mixture per acre than at any 
other time. On vines that thoroughly cover the ground 
not less than 125 gallons per acre should be used at 
this time and frequently more. Spraying should never 
be stopped because the vines cover the ground and 
will be broken and more or less trampled upon when 
driving through them. Vines that have reached this 
stage will not be cut off by the wheels of the sprayer 
going over them. Rolling them down with the wheels, 
while it looks badly, will hardly bruise them except 
on side hills, where the sprayer slides more or less. 
When this happens a few will be cut off, but the damage 
is small compared with the good done in preventing 
blight and promoting growth of tubers. No one should 
hesitate to spray, even if the vines are so rank and tall 
that the rows can hardly be defined. A growth of 
vine of that magnitude certainly needs the protection 
of thorough spraying. 



INSECTS 

THE FLEA BEETLE. — Probably no insect does greater 
damage in many sections than this. They come in 
countless numbers and feed upon the leaves, eating 
small round holes through them until at least half 
of the leaf surface is eaten. Potato vines so eaten 
are much more susceptible to arsenical poisoning and 
early and late blight and other fungus diseases. Poisons 
do not seem to have much effect on this little black 
pest, and about all that can be done is an application 
to disperse them. Bordeaux Mixture, thoroughly 
applied, has this tendency. These insects usually come 
in great numbers when plants are very small. Fre- 
quently vast damage is done before the grower is 



65 




INJURY DONE BY THE FLEA BEETLE 

aware of their presence or before there is vine enough 
to suggest spraying. In Maine a late August brood 
often does serious damage to unprotected fields, even 
when vines completely cover the ground. Growers not 
provided with suitable spraying apparatus, and having 
small areas to protect, will find that Bug Death dusted 
over the vines, when damp, will prove great protection 
against this pest. 



66 

The flea beetle is difficult to fight, and because of its 
size and peculiar habits may do great injury before 
the grower is aware of the extent. Not only do they 
eat the leaves full of little holes, but in many places 
eat part way through, thus making small depressions. 
Paris Green settles in these, causing the target-like 
markings of arsenical poison injury, making it more 
pronounced on fields that are badly infested. The 
ravages of this pest have a decided effect also in causing 
early blight; so much so that it seems certain that 
early blight would seldom, if ever, cause much loss, 
unless plants suffered loss of vigor through this pest 
and arsenical poisoning. 

THE COLORADO BEETLE.— This is probably the best 
known of all the potato-eating insects. It seems to 
have been a native of Colorado, hence its name. 
When settlers carried the potato into its home it at 
once formed a liking for this plant, and at once spread 
east in search of its new-found food. It reached Iowa 
in 1861, Wisconsin in 1862, Illinois in 1864, Michigan 
and Indiana in 1867, Ohio in 1868 and Pennsylvania in 
1870. Twelve years later it reached Nova Scotia, 
and has been a pest over the whole East ever since. 
That it will ever disappear seems improbable, although 
it greatly varies in number in different sections at 
various times. It flies in bright, hot weather, but the 
distance it can go in this way is not known. Observa- 
tion leads to the belief that it never flies in damp, 
cool weather, and the approach of evening or a sudden 
shower precipitates it to the ground, regardless of 
where it is. It is frequently found washed up on the 
shores of lakes and ponds, sometimes in countless 
numbers, a sudden cooling of the atmosphere causing 
it to fall into the water in its flight across. 



It winters buried in the soil, coming out the first 
hot days of spring and sometimes appears in such 
numbers where plants are just breaking ground that 
all growth made for several days or even weeks is 
consumed. At this stage of plant growth it is hardest 
to combat, as there is so little leaf surface that it is 
impossible to poison them. They mate at once and 
egg-laying begins within a few days if the weather 
remains warm, the little plants frequently having 
several hundred eggs on them when two or three inches 
high. If the plants are covered with soil, it will destroy 
these first egg clusters, and with very late plantings 
will often prove all that is needed to rid a field of the 
pest. Fighting them should never be delayed until 
damage is done the plants, as it will result in a loss of 
crop, amounting to many times the cost of labor and 
material needed to rid the field of them. The remedy 
is described herein under "Insecticides." 

SCAB. — This is a fungus disease, causing rough-pitted 
patches, or, in badly infected soils, covering the whole 
surface of the tubers, often making the whole crop 
unmarketable. Some varieties are more susceptible 
to scab than others. The "American Giant" is scab- 
resisting, but its cooking quality is poor, and hence it 
commands a lower price. As a rule, the better the 
quality of the variety, the more susceptible it seems 
to scab. 

The disease is widespread, due to planting infected 
tubers; hence, the remedy largely lies in planting seed 
free from it. A system of crop rotation, resulting in 
the use of the same soil for growing potatoes, only once 
in three or four years, generally averts the disease. 
It does not thrive in acid soil, even though present in 



68 




POTATOES AFFECTED WITH SCAB 

it, or even when scabby seed is planted, and conse- 
quently the crop is sufficiently free from it to be readily 
marketable. Soil may be sweetened by lime to the 
point where clover thrives, without being sweet enough 
to forbid potato growing because of scab. Plant 
seed free of the disease and thus avert danger from it. 
If seed showing spots or patches must be used, dis- 
infect it. One method of doing so, is to soak the tubers, 
before cutting, in a solution of formaldehyde. This 
is called formalin solution. It is not a costly process, 
if sensibly handled. There are several methods; but 
the following will answer where up to 100 or 150 
bushels of seed is used : 



Use five barrels of fifty or more gallon capacity each, 
set them in a row out of doors, put into each 35 gallons 
of water and add one pint of formalin of the standard 
40 per cent, solution to each barrel. Put seed into 
coarse bags (bran sacks are best), tieing near the top. 
This allows contents to spread in the bag and thus each 
barrel will hold three bags of one bushel each and the 
35 gallons of solution will cover the lot. The five 
barrels soak 15 bushels at a time, or about all one man 
can attend to at once. Soak from one and one-half 
to two hours. While this is in progress more seed can 
be sacked and made ready for treatment, when the 
first lot is removed. One man can thus prepare and 
soak about 100 bushels per day. The cost of formalin 
should not exceed $1.25 for five barrels, and each barrel 
should soak at least 40 bushels of seed. When seed 
is removed from solution, turn out on the ground, one 
bushel in a place, and throw a bucket of clear water 
over each lot, to rinse the solution off, as it makes them 
nicer to handle when cutting. When dried, they can 
be stored until needed for planting. 

All articles used in handling the seed should be 
dipped in the formalin solution before being used for 
the soaked seed, so that any of the scab fungus which 
might adhere to them will be killed, and if the seed ia 
restored to the bin or other place, a bucket of the solu- 
tion and an old broom should be used to thoroughly 
disinfect the storage place in advance. It is a serious 
matter when soil becomes badly infected with scab, 
and the quickest way to eradicate the disease is to 
abandon the use of that soil for potato growing for 
several years; meantime growing green crops upon it 
and plowing them under, which will start a slight 



70 

acidity and aid in curing the disease. Lime, ashes or 
heavy applications of manure tend to sweeten the 
soil and promote growth of scab disease. 

Sulphur is sometimes used to dust over the seed when 
cut and also scattered along the row when planting. 
At times this proves a perfect remedy, while again it 
amounts to little. The condition of the soil itself 
doubtless has much to do with this. It is claimed that 
spreading seed potatoes to sprout, where the direct 
rays of the sun strike them, kills the scab fungus. 
When scab fungus is present in the soil, treatment 
given the seed does not insure a clean crop, but does 
prevent planting the disease with the seed. The 
disease is often present in a limited way in soil favorable 
to its growth and yet does not affect the tubers enough i 
to injure the market value of one season's crop, unless { 
the scab in vigorous condition has been planted on | 
the seed. Land, reasonably free from it, will usually 
grow good market crops of tubers if a rotation follows 
which will not repeat potatoes on the same ground I 
oftener than once in three or four years. This is I 
more certain if manure is not used on the ground; ; 
but rather that the humus-content may be maintained I 
by plowing under green crops or clover sod, and using | 
chemicals or commercial fertilizer to supply the plant 
food needed by the potato crop. 

LATE BLIGHT OR ROT.— This probably causes more 
loss to northern growers than any other disease attack- 
ing the plant. It presumably lives through the winter 
only on the tuber itself and can frequently be readily 
detected when cutting seed, although it might be pres- 
ent in many tubers cut and escape detection by even 
an expert. It may affect but a small part of the tuber 



71 

and, in cutting, the part affected may not be cut 
through, and hence not revealed even to an expert. 
When cutting seed, if the cut surface shows black- 
like threads running through the tuber, it must be 
discarded, as this is probably the late blight or rot in 
the dormant state in which it passes the winter. It 
may also be detected by sunken spots on the tuber's 
surface. These are usually irregular in shape and 
vary in size from mere spots to extending over nearly 
the whole surface of the tuber. These spots usually 
develop while in winter storage, and in some cases quite 
a percentage of the lot show the spots in spring, al- 
though at harvest time no trace of them was visible. 

When soil and weather conditions are favorable 
to the growth of this fungus or infected seed planted, 
it spreads to the surface by the roots and stalks. The 
whole root system and stalks below the surface of the 
ground are frequently found badly infected when the 
thoroughly sprayed top shows no blight whatever, 
but a slight pull will break the stalk off just below the 
soil's surface. This is one reason why early spraying 
for late blight or rot is necessary, as it may be working 
towards the surface on the roots and underground 
stems when infected seed has been planted, and even 
the most critical observer cannot detect it unless an 
infected hill is dug out. The sprout or stalk springing 
from any seed piece badly infected when planted is 
likely to come up weak and spindling. On the other 
hand, many seed pieces may be so slightly infected that 
the vigor of the sprout is apparently little impaired 
and the field make a splendid growth. 

If at about the time plants are going out of blossom, 
and sometimes before, the weather becomes hot, with 



72 

frequent rains, the spores of the blight reach the sur- 
face, and if the vines are unprotected the spores spread 
very rapidly over the leaves and in a few days will 
turn a fine looking field into a mass of blackened, 
dying vines, with very offensive odor. Rotting of 
tubers does not always follow blighting of vines, al- 
though usually the case. If no rain falls from the time 
vines become infected with the spores until entirely 
dead, and the unripe tubers in the ground become 
ripened off or hardened up, there is little danger from 
it. Tubers thoroughly ripened seldom rot in the soil 
unless it becomes very wet. Again, a field that indi- 
cates little blight on the vines, perhaps none to the 
average grower, and keeps green until frost, may have 
its tubers rot badly. This results from the spores of 
the blight being washed from the leaves down upon 
the unripe tubers, which they immediately attack. 

Vines may be so slightly affected by blight spores 
that the casual observer would not detect it, and 
enough spores remain to be washed down in the event 
of heavy rain upon the unripened tubers and cause 
severe rot. A field can also become infected with 
blight by the spores being brought to it by the wind 
from a field miles away. In this event it is usually 
detected on the leaves near the top of the plant. A leaf 
showing a portion turned black and drooping with a 
white mold on the under side, can safely be diagnosed 
as affected with late blight. If good, vigorous seed 
has been planted and the vines kept thoroughly 
sprayed with Bordeaux Mixture, beginning when they 
are only six or eight inches high, little danger exists 
of losing the crop from late blight or rot. If blight 
gets well started, little hope exists for the crop. 



73 




74 

HARVESTING AND STORING.— Potatoes will keep 
better over winter if digging be delayed until cool 
weather. Where crops ripen in early August and 
second growth threatens, this cannot be done. After 
a tuber fully ripens so that no change occurs in size, 
rain causes the soil to adhere to it more or less, even 
though the soil dries again. Tubers remaining in the 
ground weeks after growth ceases are seldom as bright 
and clean as those dug earlier. Potatoes ripening 
in early August are difficult to keep in fit condition 
to plant the following spring. Sprouting is likely to 
occur in early winter with. loss of the tubers' vigor. 
Overcome this by using specially constructed under- 
ground cellars for storage, where low temperature 
without freezing is maintained. 

Large growers who store crops should possess such 
a cellar. Even if growers sell direct from the field, 
it is desirable at times to harvest faster than possible 
to market to advantage. A cool, dark place, easy of 
access from the field and to remove from later, will 
save its cost in a few years. There are two types of 
storage, one with frost-proof walls where potatoes are 
kept above ground in the body of the building in which 
provision has been made for heat from basement stove 
or furnace circulating between outer and inner walls. 
This is the best if building be accessible by railroad 
siding. Here potatoes can be bought, sold and kept 
in quantity, a caretaker being employed in winter. 

A building with basement cellar for use of the aver- 
age grower is better. Such a building, with room above 
for farm implements, is worth its cost for this purpose 
alone. This is usually built against a side hill or knoll, 
the floor over cellar being at ground level at upper side 



75 




76 

or end of the building, making this floor easy of access 
by team. The ground on the lower end or side, being 
level with the cellar bottom, permits contents to be 
removed with little labor. The crop as drawn from 
the field is dropped through hatchways from the floor 
above into bins below. Care must be taken to avert 
bruising the tubers in storing. This can be done by 
means of a tube or chute made of burlap and extending 
from the vehicle on or hatchway in the upper floor to 
the cellar. The burlap tube can be drawn up and 
handled so as to permit spreading the tubers out in the 
bin without bruising. This permits rapid storing when 
harvesting, with a minimum amount of work. 

The more of the cellar under ground and well venti- 
lated, the cooler will it be in warm weather and the 
longer will the contents keep without sprouting. Con- 
structed in this way, no artificial heat is required, even 
in coldest weather. If flat stone can be had cheaply, 
they make a good wall foundation; this can be carried 
up several feet, but the remainder should be grout or 
concrete. This is apparently the best wall for a 
potato cellar. An outside coating of Portland cement 
before banking with earth should make such a wall 
sufficiently water-tight. The top of the wall should be 
12 to 14 inches thick and sills laid even with the out- 
side edge and pointed with cement mortar. The sills 
on the wall need not be heavier than 4 by 4 inches, 
leaving 8 or 10 inches inside the sill. After floor tim- 
bers are in place, space remains to brick up and by set- 
ting brick on edge, two dead air spaces remain, carry 
this right up around the floor timbers, which should 
rest on the sill tops, thus getting their full strength. 
The cross sills should be heavier timber, so arranged 



77 

that the supports for them will come just right for the 
division of the cellar into bins. The floor above should 
be either double thickness of boards or boards with 
two-inch plank above with heavy paper between. 
Plank will not be needed unless teams are to be driven 
upon this floor, two thicknesses of boards being strong 
enough for all other purposes. Quicker and easier 
storing can be done if the load is drawn from the field 
to the floor hatchways. The under side of the floor 
timbers can be covered with matched sheathing, giving 
a dead air space between. 

No litter of any kind is required on the floor above, 
even in coldest weather, if construction work is properly 
done. Such a cellar will keep an even temperature of 
35 to 37 degrees during winter and warm up very slowly 
in the spring if kept closed, bringing the potatoes out 
in the best possible condition for either market or seed 
purposes. 

Experience proves that a dry, cool cellar will cause 
shrinkage, while a damp, cool cellar will keep the 
tubers as firm and hard as when dug, with little waste 
from shrinkage. When storing in the fall, the cellar 
should be cooled down to from 30 to 40 degrees above 
zero. This can be hastened by opening the doors at 
night, when the outside temperature is lower than that 
of the cellar, and closing in the morning, repeating this 
until the temperature of the cellar is about 36 degrees 
above zero. 

MARKETING THE CROP.— This is largely a matter of 
color, size and quality. As a rule, the markets of today 
demand a somewhat round, white potato, with a shallow 
eye. These should be well sorted and graded as to 
size. Uniformity of size attracts the buyer. There 



78 

should always be at least two grades, and if there are 
many large tubers of a pound or more in weight, it is 
usually advisable to make three grades, the first nice, 
smooth tubers, practically free from scab, prongs or 
any form of roughness. The largest should not be 
much, if any, over 12 to 14 ounces, and the smallest not 
below 5 ounces. This is as great a variation in size 
as ought to exist in any lot which the grower expects 
to be graded as firsts and bring the highest price. 

All above this grade in size that are good and smooth 
will usually sell for a higher price per bushel than could 
be obtained if both of these grades were mixed together. 
There is invariably a good market for these large tu- 
bers if smooth and nice in appearance and good, clear 
through. The fear that they are hollow and black in 
the center or core is about the only objection, the buyer 
has to them; but they have in their favor large size, 
which readily commends them to the maker of potato 
chips or the hotels or restaurants where fried potatoes 
are served, large tubers being peeled with less labor 
and waste. Could nice, clean stock, running from 12 
ounces to two pounds always be obtained, there would 
be a good demand for it at good prices. The third 
grade will be all below five ounces in weight down to 
those the size of large hen's eggs, all being good and 
smooth. This grade is preferred for baking purposes, 
as they bake quickly and the flavor is equal to any. 

The ordinary grower does not have enough of either 
of the last two grades to establish and maintain a trade 
in them, and in the average neighborhood there are 
so many different varieties grown that co-operative 
work is impossible. Potatoes graded in this way will 
yield growers more money and better satisfy the 
consumer. 



79 



1 




80 

Where potatoes are largely grown co-operative 
organization should exist among growers, not only in 
marketing the crop, but in the purchase of seed. Such 
organizations should possess buildings of ample size, 
with railroad siding facilities. Growers should handle 
their crops there and an expert corps of men be employed 
to sort and grade them. The cost would perhaps be 
a little more than grading in the field, but the extra 
price obtained would more than offset the extra cost, 
as field-sorted stock is never properly graded. By 
this method the graders, having no interest in any 
particular lot, would grade uniformly. Grading is 
essential to create a reputation and secure highest 
prices. With such an organization, varieties planted 
can be limited to those best suited to the locality as to 
quality, yield and market demands. The locality 
which can establish and maintain a reputation for choice 
well-graded stock, not only obtains the highest price 
at all times, but its product is demanded even when a 
glut depresses the market. This is of value to the grow- 
er, enabling him to dig and dispose of his crop at good 
prices, even in overstocked seasons. 

Prices obtained by Long Island, N. Y., growers well 
illustrate this point, they frequently obtaining from fifty 
cents to one dollar per barrel above the general market. 
Returns are increased ten to fifteen per cent., under 
proper co-operation, upon the lines suggested. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




000 931 135 ft 



